Exxon Charged With Illegally Dumping Waste in Pennsylvania

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world’s
largest energy company, was charged with illegally dumping more
than 50,000 gallons (189,000 liters) of wastewater at a shale-gas drilling site in Pennsylvania.

Exxon unit XTO Energy Inc. discharged the water from waste
tanks at the Marquandt well site in Lycoming County in 2010,
according to a statement on the website of Pennsylvania’s
attorney general. The pollution was found during an unannounced
visit by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The inspectors discovered a plug removed from a tank,
allowing the wastewater to run onto the ground, polluting a
nearby stream. XTO was ordered to remove 3,000 tons of soil to
clean up the area. Wastewater discharged from natural-gas wells
can contain chlorides, barium, strontium and aluminum, the
attorney general’s statement showed.

“Criminal charges are unwarranted and legally baseless,”
the XTO unit said yesterday in a statement posted on its
website. “There was no intentional, reckless or negligent
misconduct by XTO.”

Pennsylvania has become one of the biggest gas-producing
states in the past five years as explorers drill the Marcellus
shale, a rock formation stretching across the northeast U.S.
that holds 24 percent of the nation’s shale gas reserves,
according to the Energy Information Administration. Exxon agreed
to buy XTO in 2009 for $34.9 billion.

XTO was charged with five counts of unlawful conduct under
the Clean Streams Law and three counts under the Solid Waste
Management Act.

Legal Risks

“Charging XTO under these circumstances could discourage
good environmental practices,” the company said in its
statement. “This action tells oil and gas operators that
setting up infrastructure to recycle produced water exposes them
to the risk of significant legal and financial penalties should
a small release occur.”

The company said it “acted quickly” to clean up the spill
and there was “no lasting environmental impact,” according to
the statement.

XTO said it agreed to pay “reasonable civil penalties” in
a July 18, 2013 settlement with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the Department of Justice. It also agreed
to recycle at least half its drilling wastewater, according to
the agreement.